Prior art systems for recording sound clips associated with a photographic image are known from several sources. Earlier systems often relied on a magnetic recording medium attached to a film sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,598 discloses a still image camera having a sound recording device recording a message to a rotating sound recording medium on a film layer, and dates back to 1966. U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,853 discloses an instant camera which has a sweeping magnetic recording head which records sound on a magnetic band of a film. That system enables recording of sound both before and after capture of a photograph image, and has multiple magnetic sound recording tracks on an instant film photograph.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,029 there is disclosed an audio still camera system which captures image and sound, which allows a user to play back a sound associated with a photograph after the photograph has been inserted into a photograph album or frame, and discloses an acoustic recording medium of an electronic chip embedded in a paper laminate of a photograph. Playback of the sound can be made by the same camera which captures the image and sound, or through a separate photo album or frame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,854 discloses a further variant of instant film having a magnetic sound recording strip, and recording mechanism, whereby after recording sound information, together with a photograph image, the sound recording can be reproduced, played back by the camera, or erased. U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,472 discloses a further variant of sound recording utilising parallel tracks in a magnetic recording layer on a film, and in which a camera system having a micro-controller controls recording of audio sound clips to one or a plurality of magnetic strips.
WO 00/48388 discloses a digital camera for capturing sound passages as well as still images, and allows for a flexible construction of sound and image composites representing a user's experience at the time of capture of a photograph image. One or more sound passage files form a link to a group of sound passage files, and the user interface can selectively link still images with one or more sound passage files, or unlink images with sound passage files, according to a user's preference. Mixtures of sound passage files with image data can be carried out using the user interface. Further, matching of different views of image data with different sound passage files can be carried out. In WO 00/48388, generally a single type of sound is associated with a single photograph.
WO 00/03299 discloses a self-contained data storage device capable of storing audio data, comprising a flash memory, EEPROM or PROM, and is intended for use in storing audio data relating to a photograph image.
More recently, digital still cameras and digital camcorder devices have appeared, which in the case of camcorders are capable of taking still images as well as video clips, and recording sound data at the same time as a still image or video clip. In the case of camcorders, a video clip is recorded contemporaneously with background sound, and individual frames of the video clip can be viewed on a separate screen. Recent camcorder devices are now the size and weight comparable to digital cameras for taking still images, and prices of such devices are comparable to the extent that a prospective purchaser of a still image camera may well select a camcorder device as a direct alternative.
Much of the prior art is concerned with the mechanics of capturing a sound, immediately before, at the same time, or immediately after the time of capturing an image.
Although there are many types of photograph which provide for recording of sound at or near the time of capture of the photograph, the manipulation and editing of recorded sounds and association with photograph images after the time of capture is not well addressed in the prior art.
Current prior art technology for audio photography such as it exists, usually allows for only a single type of sound to be associated with a photographic image. Although there are several disclosures of individual photographs having associated sound recording media, the presentation of photographs after they have been taken is a relatively neglected area in the prior art. A known prior art photograph album available from Brookstone Ltd supports the recording of sound clips with individual pages of an album. Details of such photograph album are available from Brooksone's Ltd. website. However, this technology deals with the association of a single layer of audio with image data.
Prior art multi-media sound and video editing software exists to allow the construction of complex multi-layered sound files, and their playback in time to a sequence of images. However, these software packages are typically hard to use for the consumer, are not tailored to photograph albums and do not allow arbitrary re-selection between layers at playback time. They also require the use of a personal computer or like computer.
EP 01,056,094 discloses a semi-conductor memory card, playback apparatus and recording apparatus for storing a plurality of audio object files and picture object files. Default play list information and sets of play list information show orders in which audio objects are to be reproduced. However EP 01,056,094 refers to a plurality of image and audio objects working together. The disclosure relates to the automatic presentation of displayed lyrics in time with karaoke music tracks and deals with how an image and audio object are associated and played or viewed in turn during the course of a play list or “play back route”. The disclosure uses pointers within audio information to specific image objects.
Various recording devices for recording data with a book are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,233 and WO 00/13159. In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,233, the disclosure uses a variety of techniques for selecting one of a number of discrete audio files relating to a single image or page, and for labeling each file with a written label. As such, its organization of time and audio data is flat.
In EP 99 301045.3 “digital camera with sound recording”, there is disclosed a method of supporting a plurality of images and sounds, where there is not just one sound for one image, but multiple images for a same piece of sound, or multiple sounds for a same image.
Prior art sound and video editing packages allow for manipulation of image data together with sound data. Many video editing packages support the notion of multi-media channels for editing and allow users to combine multiple audio and image streams. However, such packages have a cost and difficulty of use which makes them unsuitable to application for photograph albums, and actually represents a barrier to the adoption of an audio photo format, because they cannot be used to author physical versions of photograph albums.
An electronic or printed photograph album which allows multiple audio tracks to be associated with a single image over a period of time extending from or around the time of capture of an image, to an arbitrary time thereafter does not, to our knowledge, exist in the prior art.
The present disclosure addresses a new type of user interface for storage, presentation, and manipulation of image data and audio data.